Man lost in Amazon for 42 days dies in father's arms

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Brazilian student lost in the Amazon rain forest for more than 40 days was found by his father, only to die in his arms shortly after, rescue officials said on Tuesday.

Jonathan dos Santos Alves, 18, had been lost in the forest since mid-May, when he became separated from two friends he was hunting with in an area 72 miles (117km) north of the city of Manaus.

Fire and rescue department chief Antonio Dias dos Santos told Reuters he had been missing for 42 days.

The official search was called off a month ago but his father, Edilson, continued looking with his brother and two other men. On Saturday, they found Jonathan lying next to a river, dehydrated, emaciated and covered in insect bites.

"I held him in my arms and got the insects away from his mouth," his father, a 40-year-old farmer, was quoted as saying by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. "When I tried to revive him, he gritted his teeth and died."

The son was found about 27 miles (45km) from where he went missing. Pictures from the scene showed rescuers using a helicopter to lift his body from a tree, where his father had placed it during the weekend to keep it from being eaten by animals.

(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Bill Trott)